Wearing a dirk casually

[Orvis]

If people could stop referring to Ghillie shirts as pirate shirts, that would be great. Ghillie shirts are traditional shirts and are not modern inventions like some claim. I wear a Ghillie shirt with my kilt and it looks great!

Hi Patrick - I certainly get your point, but if you go onto the web and google "Pirate shirt" and "Ghillie shirt", you will see exactly the same garments for sale. They are both roomy cotton shirts with fall-down collars and neck openings that are secured by lacing. I believe this type of shirt came into existence at some point in the 20th c., so the style isn't that old. In the 18th c. men's shirts also had neck openings, but they were secured at the top by buttons. Depending on the time period, shirts could have narrow banded collars (early) or wide fall-down collars (1760s onward), and narrow cuffs (early) or wide cuffs (1790s onward). Shirts then were almost always made of linen (cotton was expensive!) of varying qualities. The length of the shirt depended on what the wearer wanted; when I go reenacting, I choose to have my shirts extend about 3/4-way down my thighs, where it acts to protect my skin from the wool of the kilt/plaid. My shirts also double as night-shirts when I camp out at reenactments.

If you're going for a historic look and want to get an authentic "Jacobite" shirt to wear with your kilt, you might try reenactor vendors like G. Gedney Godwin. Or buy a pattern and get some linen and get one made - it isn't that hard. IMHO, it will look a lot better than a Ghillie/pirate shirt.

[Tobus]

The Ghillie/Jacobite shirt is somewhat-based on historical shirts insofar as it has puffier sleeves than modern shirts, but beyond that, the actual details are much different. Most of which Orvis pointed out. Here's an old thread where the origins of the Jacobite shirt were discussed. The consensus seemed to be that the modern Jacobite/ghillie shirts are a modern (circa 1970s) design trying to come off as a historical look. But the lacing at the front is not correct for the Jacobite period, the material isn't historically accurate, and the construction of the shirt (yoke, gathering, etc.) isn't accurate either.

And no matter how you slice it, the shirt is a bit of an anachronism when worn with a modern kilt. It did not evolve continuously with the rest of traditional kilt attire. That style of shirt disappeared completely from the record (at least as far as I know) for a century or two, then magically reappeared in the late 20th century as a historical-themed shirt. So at this point, it may be fair to say it's an attempt at a historical look, but it's not "traditional" in terms of being a solid part of the continuous evolution of Highland attire. I could be wrong, of course, and would welcome evidence to the contrary in the form of photos from, say, the mid 1800s through the 1960s to show them being worn by Highlanders on a regular basis with the kilt.

None of this really matters if you like the look. Wear it if it makes you happy. But the "pirate" reference probably isn't going away any time soon.

[Steve Ashton]

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[Steve Ashton]

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